Flexible or Fossilized? Mapping the Evolution of Gender Knowledge in NATO

Bringing together perspectives from feminist security studies and the organizational literature on gender knowledge, this paper examines the evolution of gender knowledge in NATO through an analysis of official NATO documents from 2007 to 2024. We find that gender knowledge has not evolved uniformly. On some issues, such as the meaning of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda and gender-based violence, boundaries have proven permeable: new ideas have gradually entered official NATO policy. On others, particularly the binary, non-intersectional and essentialist understanding of gender, as well as the patriarchal ordering of the organization, boundaries appear fixed. Our findings refine existing theory on gender knowledge contestation in security organizations. They also have practical implications for how gender mainstreaming efforts in security organizations are designed and targeted.